Winner of the Rockower Award, the highest honor in Jewish journalism, this blog contains random musings of a journalist, father, husband, son, friend, poodle-owner, Red Sox fan and occasionally-ranting rabbi, taken from Shabbat-O-Grams, columns, speeches, letters, sermons and thin air. "On One Foot," the column, appears regularly in the New York Jewish Week, as well as a blog for the "Times of Israel."

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Judaism's Top 40: Introduction and #40 - Pikuach Nefesh

Judaism's Top 40!

This year the entertainment world mourned the loss of
Casey Kasem, known among other things for his weekly listing of
“America’s Top 40.” Kasem, an American of Lebanese Druze descent, was an avid
supporter of reconciliation among the peoples of the Middle
East.

The “Top 40” of the Jewish calendar are undoubtedly the
forty days between the first of the Hebrew month of Elul and the end of Yom
Kippur. These are the days of repentance, punctuated by reflection,
special prayers and the sounding of the shofar. For Jews, it’s also
become a time for reconnection with our ancient heritage and value system,
which, while old, lends the kind of wisdom that is so needed in these
difficult times.

In order to reinforce those values and to promote Jewish
literacy, for each day of this period of soul searching I’m going to count down
“Judaism’s Top 40” concepts and values. Like any list, this one is
subjective and I’m not revealing them in order of importance. But a nice
exercise might be to come up with your own list or to prioritize this
one. I’d love to see your list and compare. Let me know which ones
you wish to explore in more depth.

Of course, you can also study these on your own - I'll provide links. And even more, find ways to incorporate these values
into your life.

Pikuach Nefesh:the saving of
life / the highest Jewish obligation that overrides almost every other
law. Click here for more.

"For this reason was the human being created alone, to
teach you whosoever destroys a single soul, Scripture imputes [guilt] to him as
though he had destroyed an entire world; and whosoever preserves a single soul,
Scripture ascribes [merit] to him as though he had preserved a complete world." Sanhedrin
4:5